This invention relates generally to the field of mail processing, and in particular to the processing of mail relating to financial institutions. More specifically, the invention relates to the organization of pages containing financial information, including any attached financial cards, along with any inserts so that they may be placed into an envelope for mailing to a recipient.
Credit cards play an important role in today""s economy. To receive a credit card, a person typically fills out an application which is processed by a bank that will issue the card. If the application is approved, the card needs to be produced and sent to the requester. Banks often contract another company to produce and issue cards on their behalf. For example, one such company is First Data Merchant Services (FDMS).
To issue a card, the bank sends the information to FDMS, typically in electronic form. Using this information a card is embossed and initialized with the appropriate information. The card is then attached to a paper carrier and then placed into an envelope for mailing. Existing equipment for performing such steps are commercially available from Bowe, Augsberg, Germany. Optionally, a second sheet and one or more inserts may also be added prior to placement into the envelope.
Unfortunately, such equipment can be expensive, typically on the order of about $1 million. As such, this invention relates to other machines and techniques that may be used to process such media in a more cost efficient manner.
The invention provides various equipment and techniques that may be used to facilitate the processing of mail, and in particular to mail comprising multiple sheets that are matched together prior to be inserted into an envelope, some of which may include a charging instrument, such as a credit card. The mail may also include various inserts that are selectively added to the matched pieces of mail prior to insertion into the envelope.
In one embodiment, a mail processing machine comprises a first holding location that is adapted to hold a stack of first pages. A card is coupled to each of the first pages, and each first page includes an identifier. The machine also includes a second holding location for holding a stack of second pages, with each second page also having an identifier. A first advancing mechanism is used to separately advance each first page from the stack, and a second advancing mechanism is employed to separately advance each second page from the stack. A first scanning device reads the identifier on each first page as the first page is advanced by the first advancing mechanism, and a second scanning device reads the identifier on each second page as the second page is advanced by the second advancing mechanism. Further, a controller is employed to control the first and second advancing mechanism to permit the first and second pages to be scanned by the first and second scanners and to match the first pages with the second pages if the identifier on one of the advanced first pages corresponds with the identifier on one of the advanced second pages.
Hence, with such a configuration, a stack of first sheets to which cards have been attached may be individually matched with sheets of a second stack simply by advancing one of the sheets from each stack, comparing their identifiers to confirm that they both correspond to each other, and then placing one of the sheets onto the other. In this way, the machine may be constructed as a relatively inexpensive machine while still having the ability to match first and second sheets.
The machine may also include a conveyor so that the first advancing mechanism may place one of the first pages onto the conveyor and so that the second advancing mechanism may place one of the second pages onto the first page if the identifiers correspond. Further, the machine may include a plurality of inserting locations that are adapted to hold inserts. A plurality of inserting mechanisms may be used to place selective ones of the inserts onto the first and second pages as they pass along the conveyor. For example, based on the identifiers, certain inserts may be selected to be added. The controller sends a signal to the appropriate inserting mechanism to add these inserts to the stack moving along the conveyor.
The machine may further include a stuffing mechanism that is adapted to place the first and the second pages along with any inserts into an envelope. A postage station may then be used to place postage onto the envelope.
Conveniently, the first pages and second pages may be pre-folded into three sections defined by two fold lines before being placed into the machine. This may be done in an automated manner by a separate machine. These pages may be vertically stacked so that the advancing mechanisms may advance the bottom page from each stack prior to reading each identifier. Alternatively, the second pages may be flat sheets that are scanned to read their identifiers. After scanning, equipment may be used to fold the flat sheets and place them on the conveyor with the corresponding first sheets.
The invention also provides a sensing system to sense whether a sheet has been grasped. Such a sensing system may find particular use with a mail processing system, as well as with any application where the proper number of sheets that have been grasped needs to be determined. The sensing system comprises a first arm having a first jaw and a second arm having a second jaw. The second jaw is pivotally coupled to the first jaw to permit a sheet to be grasped between the jaws. A distance sensing system is disposed to sense the distance between the first and second arms, and a processor is used to determine if a single sheet is disposed between the first and second jaws based on the distance measured by the distance sensing system. In this way, once a grasping mechanism has attempted to grasp the sheet, the sensing may be used to sense whether only a single sheet has been grasped.
In one aspect, the sensing system comprises a light source that is configured to direct light onto the second arm, and a light collector on the first arm that is adapted to collect light reflected from the second arm. Further, a calibration mechanism may be used to calibrate the processor once the sheet has been placed between the first and second jaws.
Conveniently, an alarm may be coupled to the processor to indicate if a single sheet has not been grasped. The processor may be configured to trigger the alarm if a certain tolerance range has been exceeded. For example, the tolerance may be one that is greater than about 10% above a calibrated distance.
If incorporated into a mail processing system, the mail processing system may include a conveyor so that the first and second jaws may release the sheet onto the conveyor based on a signal from the processor. Further, inserting locations may hold sheets of inserts that are to be grasped by the first and second jaws. The first arm may be coupled to a rotatable bar to rotate the first and second jaws toward and away from the sheets of inserts so that a single sheet may be grasped during each cycle.